On Monday, April 15, 2013 9:35:47 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Terrific attempt, but I've gotta ask some questions: Did they expect to fly a thousand miles in daylight? I know they're equipped for night flight, but I'd hate to have to land anywhere in Colorado at night in a glider. Worse would be to bail out! Were they counting on wave to carry them all the way from Minden to Garden City? That sounds unreasonable to me and I'd expect thermals to quit before sundown. Is the sink rate of the Duo low enough that they could fly at minimum sink all night and hope to catch a thermal over the plains in the morning? Could they keep each other awake? Again, wonderful flight and I would have been amazed to see it work out, but I just don't see how it would be realistically possible. Someone please enlighten me! wrote in message ... Thanks Gordon and Hugh! I got almost nothing done today! Good show, GREAT FLIGHT!

If they could've been about 3 mph faster yesterday they could've made it to the sangre de christos and presumable back up to the mid 20's at least, or potentially as high as FL280. Of course this would've been right at sunset, unless they could've been even faster. From there it is about 265 miles to Garden City, elevation about 3000 MSL. So you have to achieve a 53:1 glide to make it, which seems pretty doable to me with the kicking tailwind and a Duo. That would result in a pretty dark landing at Garden City, but there are lighted airports about every 50 miles along the way. If the wind is a bit stronger and the sink not too bad then maybe Dodge City is acheivable.